Portland evens series, beats Silvertips 4-1 in Game 2

PORTLAND, Ore. — The Portland Winterhawks clamped down defensively on Saturday night, and the Everett Silvertips were unable to pull off another upset.

Portland limited Everett to a paltry 11 shots on goal, and the Winterhawks won Game 2 of their first-round WHL playoff series 4-1 in an ill-tempered encounter.

The eighth-seeded Tips stunned the top-seeded Winterhawks 4-3 in Friday’s Game 1. But Portland gave Everett nothing to work with offensively as the Tips rarely threatened the Winterhawks’ goal.

Troy Rutkowski scored once and made two assists to lead Portland, which evened the best-of-seven series at 1-1. Shaun MacPherson and Ty Rattie also scored as the Winterhawks carried a 3-0 lead into the game’s final 10 minutes. Derrick Pouliot added a late power-play goal for Portland, and Mac Carruth earned the win in goal with 10 saves.

Joshua Winquist scored the lone goal for Everett. Austin Lotz made 30 saves in net for the Tips.

The game got angrier as it went along with the teams combining for 130 penalty minutes and several post-whistle melees. The third period alone included 29 infractions.

The series switches to Everett for Games 3 and 4, beginning Wednesday.

A dramatic turn of events led to Portland opening the scoring 6 minutes, 34 seconds into the game. Everett had a great scoring chance at one end, but Winquist fanned on the attempt. Portland immediately broke four-on-two the other way and scored, Rutkowski putting in the rebound to give the Winterhawks a 1-0 lead.

Everett then spent much of the remainder of the period on the penalty kill. The Silvertips had to weather four Portland power plays, including a lengthy five-on-three. But the Tips survived with Lotz making several good saves, including an incredible reaching glove save on Nicolas Petan during the five-on-three, and it stayed 1-0 going into the second.

Portland continued to carry play in the second period, and the Winterhawks doubled their lead at 8:04. MacPherson shot from the point and Lotz never saw it through heavy traffic, making it 2-0. Everett was unable to get anything offensively going in the period, managing just one shot on goal.

Rattie made it 3-0 6:43 into the third period. Landon Oslanski’s turnover gave Portland a two-on-one. Rattie shot the puck himself and beat Lotz.

Everett gave itself a glimmer of hope by scoring on the power play at 10:48, Winquist putting in his own rebound. But the Tips found themselves killing penalties again down the stretch, and Pouliot ended it with a shot from the point at 16:45.